U2 and Philosophy

How to Decipher an Atomic Band

Edited by Mark A. Wrathall

Volume 21 in the Popular Culture and Philosophy® series

"Imagine—a rock’n’roll band sporting leather and playing sold-out stadiums worldwide that uses terms like simulacra and agape to explain what they think they’re doing. U2 just may be the smartest, most philosophically interesting band on the planet and this fantastic book shows us why."

—Christian Scharen, author of One Step Closer: Why U2 Matters to Those Seeking God

"What do U2 have to do with Heidegger, theodicy, Plato, existentialism, Kierkegaard, eschatology, and Nietzsche? A lot more than you might think, particularly as the band’s popularity reflects on ’temporary society. This book puts U2 into a philosophical context in the same way that The U2 Reader found them a historical and cultural milieu."

—Hank Bordowitz, editor of The U2 Reader and author of Billy Joel: Life and Times of an Angry Young Man

Do U2’s songs develop morality by training the emotions?
Will we ever find what we’re looking for?
Is Bono’s publicly constructed identity even better than the real thing?
Can rock music preserve a sense of the authentic?
When does feeling become knowledge?
How can music change the shape of the world?
What can the world’s greatest rock band tell us about art and trash?
From Bloody Sunday to 9/11, is there value in shouting angrily at God?

Mark A. Wrathall is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Brigham Young University. He has written How to Read Heidegger (2005) and numerous articles in philosophy journals. He is editor of A Companion to Phenomenology and Existentialism (with Hubert L. Dreyfus, 2005), Religion After Metaphysics (2003), and Heidegger, Coping, and Cognitive Science (with Jeff Malpas, 2000).